No Stand-by For Sub-station

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31363, 8 May 1967, Page 1

No Stand-by For Sub-station

Nobody will be on night stand-by duty at the Woolston electric power sub-station, which services both the Christchurch-Lyttelton electrified line and the Heathcote Valley and Lyttelton areas, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and the Railways Tradesmen’s Association have decided.

Should there be a breakdown at the station outside normal hours, power would be cut off to Heathcote Valley and Lyttelton, the sewage treatment works, the water supply pumping station, the pumps which delivered oil by pipeline over the port hills, the secretary of the Canterbury branch of the A.S.R.S. (Mr J. F. McDowell) said last evening. In addition, barrier arms at railway crossings would drop and stay down, and power would also be cut off to the Christchurch-Lyttelton road tunnel.

A meeting of the branch felt, that as a responsible organisation, the branch should tell the publie about the position regarding the power station, Mr McDowell said. Officials of the A.S.R.S. and the R.T.A. had offered to cooperate with the Railways Department by arranging that the man normally on

stand-by duty for the Woolston sub-station, which was attached to the Woolston traction depot and was maintained by railways staff, would remain on call-out during the strike. But because of the department’s lack of co-operation the offer had been withdrawn, and one man would work normal hours at the sub-station but would not be available for call-out at other times. Commenting on the substation situation, the district traffic manager of railways (Mr M. R. Leineweber) said if there was a breakdown during the night, it appeared it would be repaired the next day. The general manager of the Christchurch-Lyttelton road tunnel (Mr L. H. Wilson) said last evening that the tunnel was equipped with stand-by generators to provide lighting, communications and carbon monoxide monitoring. There was no auxiliary power for the ventilating fans, which were normally switched on at 6 a.m. If there was a power failure at night which was not repaired until the next morning it could be an embarrassment by putting the fans out of action, but there would certainly be no danger. Visible fumes, which would be irritating but not dangerous, would be the likely cause of problems.